LNG from Jordan Cove LNG will be exported to the Asian market, which is willing to pay three times more for the fracked gas than the domestic market. In a September interview with the business journal Platts, Jordan Cove LNG project manager Robert Braddock stated[17] the rationale behind converting Jordan Cove into an export terminal: “we would have certainly much closer access to the Asian markets.”

This is but a small piece of a much bigger, broader picture of foreign-based multinational corporations investing in U.S. shale operations in order to benefit from the export potential. This will mean higher prices for U.S. consumers, despite industry claims to champion U.S. energy independence and “affordable” energy.

A Foreign Flurry to Profit from U.S.-Based Shale Gas

Two important investigative reports on the subject came out recently, one by Food and Water Watch[18] and another by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review[19]. Both of the reports show that, contrary to the claims made by the oil and gas industry that fracking for unconventional energy will “boost local economies[20],” fracking is increasingly revealing itself as a boon for huge multinational corporations, often not even based in North America, but in foreign locales.

“Foreign investment poured into American gas and oil shale fields through three quarters of 2011, amounting to $24.5 billion of the total $39.9 billion in deals,” revealed the Tribune-Review.

The map below, produced by the Tribune-Review, best portrays who stands to gain from the North American fracking boom happening in every crevice of the United States. “Boosting the local economy”? As can be seen quite clearly, this is merely a pipe dream.